Nurses ‘on hands and knees’ over staffing issues at Naas General Hospital

Nurses have threatened to escalate industrial action to work stoppages at Naas General Hospital.

Members of the Irish Nursing and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have been engaged in a work-to-rule industrial action at the hospital since Monday over “unacceptable and unsafe staffing deficits”.

The union said its action may escalate if the HSE does not act to resolve staffing issues.

It says there has been a failure to fill maternity-leave vacancies, as well as a failure to increase staffing to meet an over 25% increase in Emergency Department attendance at the hospital in the past three years.

At the protest, INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha explained that the “very busy” hospital had seen a “massive increase” in emergency department attendances.

The area, which is seeing population growth generally, also contains nursing homes that are increasingly dealing with people from Dublin that rely on Naas General Hospital when they become unwell.

She told the Press Association: “All in all, the staffing has not kept pace with the population and the demand on services in the hospital.”

Ms Ni Sheaghdha said the issue has been going on for years, leading to patients being cared for in inappropriate areas.

The INMO says highly-skilled theatre nurses are owed hundreds of hours of time back.

“Nurses do not feel the care they can deliver can be delivered safely – and that’s a real risk.”

Ms Ni Sheaghdha said the INMO wanted the HSE to deal with the issue “swiftly”, adding: “We want the employer make real proposals that we can put to members that we can say there is a likelihood that this will resolve this dispute.

“At the moment, we’re not at the point. We continue to talk and that’s good but the proposals we’ve had to date are not sufficient.”

Zoe Cleary, who works as a clinical facilitator in the emergency department, said the issues at the unit involve uncovered maternity leave and leaving staff not being replaced.

“Our staff are on their hands and knees.

“They’re expected to do workloads of multiple additional people

“There’s huge burnout, there’s huge stress, and there’s a huge problem with retaining staff.”

Ruth O’Connor, a staff nurse in theatre and endoscopy, said members had become “quite cynical” about the approach taken by the HSE after highlighting issues for a “long, long time”.

“None of us want to be out here.

“We want to be in there looking out for our patients but the standard of care is being eroded through no fault of our own.”

Ms O’Connor said local people were “anxious” coming into the emergency department because they know “the level of service is so compromised” by staffing issues.

“Not only are we being stretched very thin, we’re being asked to extend our services with the staff we have – which is preposterous.”

She added: “This is not about pay – it is purely about safety and dignity.

“We’re not able to provide patients the dignity that patients deserve.”

The HSE said it regrets the ongoing industrial action and said it had taken efforts to resolve the issues raised.

In a statement on behalf of the hospital, it said: “The HSE remains willing and available to engage constructively with the INMO at any time in order to reach a sustainable resolution.”

The HSE said there had been “significant growth” in the workforce of the hospital in recent years, adding that there are further plans to “progress longer-term measures to support and strengthen nursing capacity”.